Friday, December 26, 2008

This one just doesn't do it for me. I doubt they are real figures, and even if they are, it just makes me say "so what?" And seriously, Randall? This one isn't even a chart comic. You didn't even draw anything. At all. You just put words out there. That is what blogs are for. Comics ought to at least be visual.

There's just nothing here for me to talk about. It isn't funny. And I am pretty sure none of that information is real. (It is not available on Google Zeitgeist. Google doesn't usually release this sort of data.) And the Wasilla jokes? What happened to being apolitical, Randall?

Anyway, thank you all for reading. Thomas will be taking over next week. I am excited! You should all be, too. It has been a pleasure, and all of you are awesome, generally speaking. But while Rob season is over, I will always live on in your hearts and minds. And in my blog, which I won't link to because that would just be shameless. But every time you are making out in public places, think of me.

The alt-text made me throw up a little in my mouth. I mean, hey, slash is fine but wtf? Really, Randall? There's a fine line between funny sex jokes and just random sex talk that make people laugh out of sheer shock and confusion.

This is the first time I feel Randall would have to explain himself. If He'd compromised his apolitical stance for a great joke I wouldn't complain but for some cheap "Palin is stupid" jokes? I'm disappointed. Is that creepy alt text a way to keep some kind of even score between Democrats and Republicans? I have to agree with Amanda on that one.

Is it a new XKCD trend to have comics with less/no art on friday? It feels that way, but pehaps it's just me.

Look, I realize the blog is under temporary management, but I still find it vaguely bothersome that both of you have criticized XKCD for visual laziness, while Carl has held up Dinosaur Comics as an exemplary comic...

Ah, Pat, but DC is limited because of its (what you call) "visual laziness." This is what makes DC great--it has to be funny even with these limits, and it is! If it were the same joke everyday, that'd be different. Or if it were a different non-funny joke everyday, that'd also be different. But it's still funny, and Ryan North makes his characters look different with his different comics.

Make sense? XKCD is no more than text.

LOL captcha is "ennis." Brokeback Mountain, anyone? And with this slashy business going on...

Pat: I am criticizing XKCD for being visually boring more than visually lazy. The art does nothing for it. Dinosaur Comics has art which, despite all of its laziness, works /really well./

Ryan North's simplicity is brilliant; Randall's simplicity works against him at every turn.

I mean, look. A comic which is literally just text is /not a comic./ A comic which is the same drawing every day? That is stretching the medium. He easily could have failed if he decided to change the artwork. Thankfully, he did not do so.

As an aside, I am a writer. I am not a very visual person, so I am very easy to please, visually speaking. If you still manage to bore me visually, you are DOING IT WRONG.

Captcha: phone. How appropriate, because Randall totally phoned it in here.

Well, firstly, is it obvious, to an American, that the mention of Chicago, IL is a reference to Obama? Stop me if I'm wrong but I was under the impression that Chicago was quite a big place. And secondly, all the other things that are wrong with this comic. (Alt-text was funny, though.)

And yeah, the Dinosaur Comics obsession does get a bit much, sometimes. Because while it is funny, it is the same joke every day: basically North takes something which is unfunny and WRITES IT IN ALL CAPS AND OMITS THE FULL STOP

For a strip that doesn't like to be political, he sure is pushing it. Also, Palin jokes were a lot better when she was actually important. All of us were making those back in, oh, september. But it's nice that you are trying to catch up, I guess?

On the alt-text here: I found it pretty gross but I must admit that "formed a more perfect union" was good.

Wooooo we are on encyclopedia dramatica. That means we're important!

I guess I am the only one who thought this comic would have been funnier if he had found actual ironic google trends? I don't know how many of them there would be, but as it is we just have "ha ha, here's what some people are really like, contrary to their well-known stereotype!"

Fun fact: top searches for "xkcd" is....cambridge, MA! Now how on earth would that make sense....

I think if he wanted a joke that was really obscure but also much funnier, he would have made it "Doris Kearns Goodwin" fan fiction, because it felt like 90% of references to Lincoln were about how he put his rivals in his cabinet and that in turn meant everyone was quoting Goodwin's book Team of Rivals. But no, out level of depth here is just "ha ha, Obama is gay for abe lincoln!"

you are all stupid. you cant simply understand the xkcd cuz u have no sense of humors. maybe if you had a soul you could understand. but without it you have too much trouble. one day i will have babby with xkcd

What the hell is this?

Welcome. This is a website called XKCD SUCKS which is about the webcomic xkcd and why we think it sucks. My name is Carl and I used to write about it all the time, then I stopped because I went insane, and now other people write about it all the time. I forget their names. The posts still seem to be coming regularly, but many of the structural elements - like all the stuff in this lefthand pane - are a bit outdated. What can I say? Insane, etc.

I started this site because it had been clear to me for a while that xkcd is no longer a great webcomic (though it once was). Alas, many of its fans are too caught up in the faux-nerd culture that xkcd is a part of, and can't bring themselves to admit that the comic, at this point, is terrible. While I still like a new comic on occasion, I feel that more and more of them need the Iron Finger of Mockery knowingly pointed at them. This used to be called "XKCD: Overrated", but then it fell from just being overrated to being just horrible. Thus, xkcd sucks.

Here is a comic about me that Ann made. It is my favorite thing in the world.

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